Loveland working toward purchase of enclave near parks

Lee and Patricia Swisher's property on West First Street involved in annexation, land-use actions

By Craig Young

Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
05/12/2014 07:31:28 PM MDT

The property on West First Street owned by Lee and Patricia Swisher since 1971 is now surrounded by city of Loveland parks. This view, photographed from the southeast on Monday, shows two of the ponds in the city's new River's Edge Natural Area. Across First Street in the background is the pavilion at Centennial Park, and not shown to the left are the two Jayhawker Ponds. (Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

LOVELAND -- A piece of property surrounded by city parks in west Loveland turns on its head the familiar scenario of a property owner being squeezed out by residential or commercial development.

Lee and Patricia Swisher have owned a 1.8-acre piece of land on West First Street just east of Taft Avenue since 1971. The property was to have housed the Swishers' welding business, or possibly another commercial development, Patricia Swisher said recently.

For a variety of reasons, the Swishers never developed the lot, which now is part of a county enclave surrounded by property within city limits.

Over the years, that property around the Swishers slowly became parkland: On the north, the city dump was covered over and became Centennial Park; on the west and south, gravel pits were filled with water and became Jayhawker Ponds; and on the east and southeast, more reclaimed mining operations became Hewlett-Packard's fishing ponds, which last year were incorporated into the city's new River's Edge Natural Area.

And now the city hopes to buy out the Swishers and fill in the divot in its otherwise continuous stretch of green space.

Representatives of the city's Parks and Recreation Department approached the Swishers in early 2012 with the idea of buying the land.

Charges of Bullying

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The two sides have been unable to reach agreement on price and timetable in a process that hasn't always been amicable.

"We do believe the city has been bullying and using intimidation," Swisher said.

As evidence of the city's alleged hardball tactics, Swisher cites its decision to forcibly annex the Swishers' property, which could have enabled the city to require them to clean it up; and a complaint that the city of Loveland filed last December with Larimer County alleging land use violations on the property.

Swisher said the city started pushing hard after she and her husband rejected a purchase offer last October and asked the city to stop contacting them. She said they were overwhelmed by the job of cleaning up after the September 2013 flood, which inundated part of their property.

The city's complaint to the county was joined by complaints from residents of the new upscale waterfront housing development on Split Rock Drive to the southwest.

In response to the complaints, the Larimer County commissioners conducted a code-compliance hearing April 28 on allegations that the Swishers' storage of inoperable vehicles, semi-trailers and other possessions violated the prohibition against using land zoned for farming primarily for storage.

The commissioners voted 2-1 to give the Swishers 90 days to remove their possessions from the land.

Commissioner Objects

The dissenting commissioner, Lew Gaiter, wasn't happy with the situation.

During the meeting, he said he believed the city's filing of a complaint with the county was an abuse of governmental power.

In an interview later, he acknowledged that the city had the right to file a complaint, but "it struck me as a negative strategy."

"I just don't think a governmental entity should be utilizing another governmental entity to do that," he said. "The city of Loveland could just as easily annex them and force the issue."

Gaiter wasn't the only third-party voice expressing dismay with the city's actions.

Last summer, Parks and Recreation started the process of annexing 33 acres, including Jayhawker Ponds and the Swisher property.

Loveland and the county have an intergovernmental agreement that encourages the city to bring county enclaves into city limits. Because the Swishers' property had been an enclave for more than three years, state law allows the city to annex their land without the landowners' agreement.

At a Loveland Planning Commission meeting March 10, commission member Rob Molloy said, "This piece of property would be a great addition to fulfill the whole park, but basically it seems like, to me, that there is a push going on here. Something doesn't smell right to me."

City Manager Responds

In an interview May 1, Loveland City Manager Bill Cahill defended the city's actions.

"I would differ with any characterization of it as bullying," he said.

"We have not done anything to hint to the Swishers that we would do anything but acquire the property as a willing buyer, willing seller, if they are agreeable to the sale," he added.

The annexation, which Swisher now says she doesn't necessarily oppose, has been pulled off the table.

Because the county is forcing the Swishers to clean up the property, the city requested an indefinite postponement of the annexation, which the Planning Commission approved Monday night on a unanimous vote.

Despite her earlier strong words condemning the city's actions, Swisher last week sounded a more hopeful tone after meeting again with a city representative May 5.

She said the city has sweetened its offer to buy the property. Without discussing the dollar amounts, she said the two parties aren't too far apart.

Her main concern always has been the amount of time the city would give her to remove her family's possessions.

To clear off the property, she and her husband need another place to put it, she said. They have been actively looking for land to lease or buy, she said, and that process takes time.

The Swishers haven't always stored their possessions on the lot.

She said their vintage vehicles and the five or six trailers full of things were moved there starting in the mid-1990s, after the couple suffered a financial setback and sold their home.

Before they closed PCL Contractors in about 2001, they lived in their shop in south Loveland for three years, she said. Now they live in a two-bedroom mobile home in a southwest-Loveland neighborhood.

Hoping for a Resolution

Swisher realizes she and her husband are running out of options.

Several years ago, the Federal Emergency Management Agency redrew its flood-plain maps along the Big Thompson River and designated about 80 percent of the Swisher property as floodway, meaning no structures could be built on it.

The remaining small portion of their land along First Street might not be developable, either, because of setback requirements along the busy arterial.

"This has been extremely hard on my husband," Swisher said. "His health is failing. He is just having an extremely difficult time with this."

After the meeting last week, she said, "I think we made a little bit of progress.